Cruise The World With Us 2026

Monday – April 27, 2026 – Cape Town

Today’s featured photo shows young penguins and their parents at Boulders Beach. These South African penguins are very similar to the Magellanic penguins we saw in 2025 in Punto Tombo, Argentina. There is an obvious difference – the South African penguins have dark spots on their white chests – the Magellanic penguins do not have any spots.

We woke to no rain – hooray! There is a time lapse of the sunrise which shows few clouds and those that were in the video were dispersing. So this should be a good day to view the scenery and the penguins.

Our excursion began with two of the same stops we visited yesterday – Camps Bay (to view Table Mountain and the Twelve Apostles) and Hout Bay (where there is a seal with a man who thinks he owns it). The bus stopped at Camps Bay for people to get a look at the mountain range running down the peninsula which ends at Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. With clear weather it was possible to view those mountains. I could even see the cable cars going up to and coming down from Table Mountain. Today there were no dancers/singers as there were on Sunday. After 10-15 minutes we continued South to Hout Bay. I didn’t include any photos from there because there wasn’t anything new – just clear skies.

As we continued to drive, we arrived at Table Mountain National Park. First site of interest was a pair of female ostriches making their way across the road in front of our stopped bus. A bit further down the road we spotted what we think was a single female eland. Photos of both the ostriches and eland are in the gallery. Soon after seeing the eland, we arrived at the parking lot for the Cape of Good Hope. There is a sign to mark the spot, and everyone wanted to have a photo with the sign. We decided to stand in front of the sign rather than waiting for people to stop standing behind the sign. As it happened, those events occurred at the same time.

I didn’t realize it, but the penguins are located at another location – not at the Cape of Good Hope. When I looked toward the water, I saw birds and didn’t pay close attention. As I walked to the water, I saw that these black birds were definitely NOT penguins – they were cormorants! We had seen lots of this bird last year when we spent time in Ushuaia, Argentina. It was hypnotic to watch the waves from the Atlantic crashing into the rocks here. I could have stayed longer but now that I knew the penguins were somewhere else, I was ready to leave.

We retraced our drive and on the way saw more elands and the same two ostriches. We turned South and drove to Cape Point. There is a screenshot that shows the location of Cape Point relative to Cape of Good Hope – just a bit East. The development for tourists that was not present at Cape of Good Hope was present at Cape Point – restaurant and several shops. We found t-shirts and Kelsey bought a souvenir drinking glass.

Cape Point has a lighthouse at a high point and a funicular railway running from the parking area to just below the lighthouse. The railway wasn’t working so they use 12-passenger vans to ferry people up the hill (or you can walk). Our guide gave us tickets to ride the van. We got in line and within a few minutes we boarded a van. Once at the upper stop we explored the area but did not climb all the steps to the top. From that location you can see Cape of Good Hope which is about 1.5 miles West. In today’s gallery, there is a selfie of us at Cape Point with Cape of Good Hope in the background. No penguins here either so back in the bus to drive up the East coast of this peninsula.

The penguins reside at Boulders Beach – about a third of the way from Cape Point to Cape Town. The location is part of the South African National Park system. We walked a couple blocks to the viewing area, got our entry tickets and went through the turnstile to find those pesky little black, white and pink birds.

Unlike Punto Tombo, which is host to a million penguins, the South African penguins at Boulders Beach number around 3,000. The estimate of the total population of South African penguins is less than 20,000. The primary reason for a decline in the species is a lack of food due to fishing and seals (which also eat the fish preferred by the penguins). To help grow the flock at Boulders Beach, fishing has been restricted.

The viewing area has a raised boardwalk to separate us humans from the birds. As we walked to the end of the boardwalk (about 1 city block), we saw birds in nests built in bushes, birds on boulders (don’t know how they got up there), birds in nests in the sand and birds swimming in the bay. Several of the chicks still had their baby feathers – there are a couple photos showing these. There were many that had lost the baby feathers but did not yet have the pink feathers above the eyes identifying adults. There were many of these new penguins in sand nests with parents. In one of the gallery photos you can see 8 such infants. On our way back to the visitor center we saw a penguin in a nest nearly hidden in the brush next to the boardwalk. There are photos in the gallery showing a closeup of the penguin and a full view which shows the brush. If you weren’t looking closely you could walk by without noticing the nest.

For purposes of comparison, I have included 4 photos from Punto Tombo in today’s gallery.

We traced a portion of yesterday’s excursion as we returned to the dock. Went past the hospital where Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first human-to-human heart transplant and we had a view of Table Mountain (which we could see this time). Something new was watching a baboon digging through someone’s trash bin to find treasures. I’m not sure they were looking for treasures – they were probably looking for anything they could eat. As we came to the Cape Town CBD (central business district) we saw murals of Bishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandella.

Back at the cruise terminal we took a selfie so you can see Table Mountain in the background. Once inside the terminal we joined the line of passengers who were getting back on the ship. All in line needed to have their passports stamped for exit from South Africa (we had an entry stamp yesterday). Didn’t take as long today as it did yesterday to get the stamp and be on our way.

There is a time lapse of our sail away from Cape Town in today’s gallery if you are interested. Following that are some stills from the evening’s theater show – Rock and Blues. One of those stills shows a sign “Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama”. See if you can figure out what is wrong with the guitar in that background (hint: has to do with the number of tuning pegs).

We left Cape Town seeing more than we had last year and a better appreciation of the area surrounding the town itself. There is more to see and experience in this area, but I doubt I would take a vacation strictly to visit Cape Town – perhaps coupled with a trip to Kruger National Park and Victoria Falls.

You can browse today’s gallery here.